


Dig Your Trenches, Load Your Weapons

by clarewithnoi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Confrontations, First War with Voldemort, Hogwarts Seventh Year, James Potter will fight u if u say a word against Lily Evans, Jealousy, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Mentions of War, Protectiveness, TW: Mention of death, first wizarding war, jily, no love lost between James and Snape lol, one-sided Severus/Lily - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27233332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clarewithnoi/pseuds/clarewithnoi
Summary: James Potter and Severus Snape have a conversation about the impending war one night during James's patrol.Sides are chosen, intentions are made clear, and battle lines are drawn.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape
Comments: 17
Kudos: 74





	Dig Your Trenches, Load Your Weapons

**Author's Note:**

> here is a moment between Snape and James where we see a bit of a more mature James Potter and a hopefully-not-two-dimensional Snape lol. Gotta admit I find him hard to write because I can't relate to him as much.
> 
> Hopefully they both come across as dynamic and human; I hate when things are inherently black-and-white, even when dealing with the First Wizarding War, because interpersonal relationships are inherently complex. I'm a James Potter supporter but I know he was at times a git lol

Severus Snape was standing alone in a third-floor corridor when James found him, his long hair falling around his eyes and his shoulders hunched forward, his body curling in upon itself in the darkness of the midnight hour. He was scribbling notes into a small, leatherbound notebook, and the scratching of his quill on paper was the only thing to disrupt the stillness of the centuries-old castle’s cavernous tranquility. James wasn’t sure that he’d like to know what the other boy was writing – if it had anything to do with his recent _extra-curricular activities_ , no good would come of it and James would rather see the book sitting at the bottom of the lake than in the Slytherin boy’s hands. He strode quietly, delaying the announcement of his arrival until the last possible moment so that Snape wouldn’t have a chance to flee before James could talk to him.

There is a difference, James thought somberly as he approached, between the silence that accompanies peace and the silence that sits at the foot of a battle. As he moved toward the other boy, it became increasingly obvious which one of the two his footsteps were interrupting.

James was on patrol alone that night – the mousy Hufflepuff with whom he was supposed to share the shift had a potions practical in the morning, so he sent her off with well-wishes and a very Head Boy-like vote of confidence, electing instead to do the patrol himself. There wasn’t much he was particularly worried about; he had the Marauders’ Map stuffed dutifully in his back pocket, and he stood tall with the easy confidence that accompanied his undeniable status as Hogwarts’s premier dueler. Patrols never posed much of a danger to him. He didn’t much enjoy them when he wasn’t patrolling with Lily, but it was often a good time to clear his head.

Or sometimes, like tonight, to clear the air.

When James finally unclogged his throat to alert the Slytherin boy to his presence, Snape’s immediate reaction was to draw his wand. This, in and of itself, was not incredibly surprising, given the late hour and the suddenness of James's appearance. Nor was it surprising that when he registered who it was that had interrupted his solitude, all he did was grip it tighter and allow a scowl to cover his previously impassive features. James’s own wand was hanging lazily between his middle and ring finger, a picture of relaxation, but in his mind’s eye he was running through the list of nonverbals he could throw to protect himself in the event of an attack.

“Out a bit late, are we, Snape?”

Snape glared and did not lower his arm at the casual question. “Take whatever points you want, Potter. I’m just studying.”

“Oh, is that what it’s called nowadays?”

“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. Now leave me alone.”

The two stared each other down for a moment before James rolled his eyes as if to say, _enough_. He hoped it would be enough of a peaceful gesture that Snape wouldn’t try to instigate anything unsavory, because he'd had an admittedly brutal Quidditch practice that afternoon and did not fancy any extraneous physical effort, especially not the kind that was required for a duel (or, less probable but still possible, a physical fight). He sighed, propping one leg up on the wall closest to him and leaning into it as he stared, unfaltering, at the boy in front of him. “I actually need to have a conversation with you, Sniv."

“What,” asked Snape cautiously, eyes still hard but hand lowering slowly, “here to throw some threats at me for existing in the same castle as your girlfriend? Bit hard to avoid her when we take most of the same classes.”

 _Like you’re trying to avoid her at all, you pillock,_ thought James, _don’t think I don’t catch you staring at her when you’re not with your Death Eater chums_. He decided not to voice these thoughts aloud, deeming them unproductive for the discussion he was trying to commence.

“I’m not here to stake some sort of claim over Lily, mate.”

Severus had to stifle the acidic and instinctive _I’m not your mate_ that bubbled up inside him, and instead chose to snarl, “Oh, really? Color me surprised, Potter. That seems to be rather in line with you and your neanderthalic obsession with her.”

“I’m not sure we want to get into a discussion about obsessions with Lily Evans. She is _my_ girlfriend, after all.”

“For Merlin’s sake, Potter. Was there something you _wanted_?”

“Actually, yes,” James paused, contemplative. “I want to clear the air about her.”

_“Clear the—”_

Snape wasn’t able to finish the outburst; James raised his eyebrows and cut him off soundly. “—What I mean is, you need to hear something, Snape, because you’re deluded enough to think otherwise.” James paused again and leveled a look at Snape that said _don’t even try to argue,_ and somehow the Slytherin boy couldn’t find it within himself to do so. Call it morbid curiosity. “I didn’t muck this up for you, you know. I didn’t steal her away, and I didn’t manipulate her into hating you. You did that all on your own because you chose _them_ over her.”

Incensed, Severus could barely keep himself from lunging at the taller boy. “You know _nothing_ of what I’ve done for her.” He hissed. His eyes were cutting and his posture was unyieldingly defensive. “What I _would_ do for her.”

“You’d die for her, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, I would.” Severus couldn’t help but be taken aback by the question aimed at him by the Head Boy, the casual nature in which he said it. James hardly looked surprised at his answer; his expression never changed, his relaxed lean on the stone wall just as easygoing as it was when he arrived. He gave away no indication of shock, and for some reason that almost bothered Severus more. “I’d die for her.”

“I suppose you think that makes you heroic.”

“Well, would _you?”_

James didn’t even take a second to think. “Die for her? Absolutely.” Severus scoffed in response – how very _Gryffindor_ , to leap headlong at the chance for glory without even a wayward thought.

“But see the thing is, _Severus_ —” the boy in question was unprepared for how unpleasant and disconcerting it would be to hear James Potter use his Christian name, “—it’s all well and good that we’d both die for Lily Evans. But the difference between me and you? I’d kill for her.”

Snape opened his mouth to object – _You don’t know what I’d do,_ he was going to scream, _I’d move mountains to keep Lily safe_ – but James beat him to it, elaborating. “I’d kill anyone that tried to lay a hand on her. I’d hex anyone to oblivion who tried to put her in harm’s way – damn Azkaban and damn the consequences to Hell. And don’t you try to tell me that you would, because you’ve had the chance – _yes you bloody well have –_ and you haven’t done a single thing. You chose the side with the people that want her dead, but you still make yourself out to be some king of virtue just because you won’t outright tell her you hate her because of her blood.”

James did little to hide the disgust in his tone, but Severus did not flinch. He _would_ _not_ flinch. His body was accustomed to receiving vitriol, muscles taut and posture unmoving; he would not give _James Potter_ of all people the satisfaction of seeing him affected.

“I want you to know one thing, though.”

Thinly concealed rage crowded the silence that stood between them, although Severus could not tell if it was his own or the other boy’s. Glaring darkly, he waited for the Head Boy to continue.

“You’ve chosen your side and I’ve chosen mine. This means that one day in the near future we might see each other in battle, and I need you to know: _I will kill you_. If I need to, if I see you harming someone, God forbid, if you lay a _hand_ on Lily, I will kill you and I will not hesitate. 

“Lily can’t kill you; I’ve accepted that. She’s too good and she has too much faith in people to be the one to end your life. I don’t have any sort of faith like that. All I know about you is that you’ve taken up with people that want her dead, and that’s enough for me. So I’m telling you, outright, that I won’t give you a second look if it happens.”

“Is this supposed to scare me?”

“I don’t really give a damn if it scares you, quite honestly,” mused James, and his face betrayed only the barest hint of anger, the tip of the veritable iceberg of searing fury that lie beneath, “but not even mentioning the fact that for all your potions expertise you couldn’t duel your way out of a housefire, you have a right to know that Lily’s going to be fighting by my side, _against_ you. And, yeah, if she sees me kill you, she’ll be angry, but she knows I won’t do it unless I have to, and she’ll seethe on it for a few hours and scream at me, but at the end of the day she’ll get into the bed that we share and she’ll go to sleep knowing that we’re both on the right side of history.”

“ _Not here to stake a claim on Lily_ , are you?” Severus snapped. He could feel a vein pulsing above his eyebrow. “Fucking rich, Potter. You can’t even make it one sodding speech without gloating about her like she’s some sort of prize. I’m sure you’d gloat just as much if you _were_ to kill me, because for all of this Hippogriff shit you’ve been spewing, you’re still the same _bullying toerag_ you’ve always been. _Unless you have to_ , alright.”

Severus wanted to strike a nerve with him—and they both knew it. He wanted Potter to lash out and give him a reason to test out the spells he’d been working on. He wanted to see the foolhardy, bombastic Gryffindor about which he and Lily used to complain. He wanted fire and brimstone and the reckoning he was sure was coming.

Instead, he got only a flicker of malice across James’s face before the boy schooled his expression into cool neutrality, and the only real change was that James shoved off the wall to stand at his full height, arms crossed over one another and wand gripped lazily in the sleeve of his robes. “Alright, Snape,” he began, voice infuriatingly placating but steeled with a subtle edge, “I was a git to you for a long time. I’ll own that outright. I hated you because you were annoying and too close to Lily. But then I changed, and so did you, and you can believe me when I say I only hate you now in the ways that you deserve. And trust me when I tell you that Lily is not a _prize_ to me. She’s a person that makes her own decisions, and she chose to be by my side. If anyone treats her like a prize, it’s you, mate, so don’t you _dare_ say something like that to me ever again.”

The only response he received was a disbelieving scoff, as Snape had turned his head to roll his eyes and look across the corridor through a pane of stained glass. The streams of moonlight that hit the window had set the hall aglow with a pale pink that leapt across the sleeping portraits like the Northern Lights, and in the relative stillness of the late hour, one could mistake the dappling colors for fairies, holding hands and dancing in the sanctuary of the empty castle.

His quiet reverie was interrupted by James, apparently not finished in his quest to prove himself superior. “Do you know what Lily would say if someone asked her why she chose me over you?”

The only play left for Snape was calculated nonchalance. “I can’t wait for you to tell me, Potter. Do go on.”

“She’d have absolutely no idea what they’re on about.” At Snape’s sharp, questioning look, he continued, and his tone was inscrutable in its intentions. “She’d tell them there was never a choice to make. You were a friend to her first, I’ll give you that, but for what you did to her, you were never even an _option._ ”

The moonlight shifted and hit a shard of harsh red and all of a sudden Snape saw not fairies dancing across the empty corridors but a blazing fire leaping from portrait to portrait, engulfing the sleeping figures in vicious, staggering heat as it climbed the stone walls and made to burn the building to ash.

When Severus finally looked forward once again, James was gone, his only parting words a distant shout of _ten points for being out past curfew_. He did nothing but stare for a brief moment, hand shaking as he picked his quill up once again and began to write.

“ _Sectumsempra,”_ he whispered, “ _for enemies…”_

Hours later, when the two of them fell asleep that night at opposite ends of the castle, James in the Head’s quarters with his girlfriend tucked soundly under his arm and Severus in his four-poster surrounded by the other young recruits of the battles to come, Snape dreamt of the color red, while all James saw was a brilliant emerald green.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! bit of a departure from my normal style (I incline towards comedic writing but wanted to challenge myself lmao).
> 
> Leave a comment, tell me what you'd like to see me write, give me a favorite line, recommend me some Jily fics!
> 
> <3


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